Blog Archives

It’s Friday, but my weekend is starting … as soon as I take my three youngest kids to the dentist for their annual check-up. Then, my oldest daughter comes home from Phoenix for Easter weekend! I just saw her when I was in Arizona, but it’s always great to have her home.

Yesterday, I took my husband to the Giants/Dodgers game. As many of you know, I love the Giants … and Dan loves the Dodgers. The Dodgers won, but that’s okay since the tickets were his birthday present. The Giants won the first two games in the series … 🙂

On Monday, I’m taking my daughter Kelly to visit three colleges on the East Coast — it’ll be a whirlwind three days, but that’s okay! She has a major decision to make buy April 30th … which also happens to be her 18th birthday.

I’m also finishing a novella this weekend, my half of the second book Laura Griffin and I are co-writing in the Moreno & Hart Mystery Series. HIT AND RUN will be out late July! But until then … Laura has FAR GONE out now, and my NOTORIOUS is still available. Also, book #8 in the Lucy Kincaid series — DEAD HEAT — is out on June 3.

Next week I have an exclusive excerpt from DEAD HEAT, plus a guest blogger on Wednesday. I’m hoping to post about my travel through the East next Friday … if I’ve recuperated enough! I’ll be posting pictures on my Facebook page, so check in there.

It’s a busy few weeks. I wish you all a blessed and safe Easter weekend.

Dying Easter eggs is one of my favorite traditions. I love to get the kids together, roll up our sleeves, and make a big mess in the kitchen while we create all sorts of colorful designs. The room smells like vinegar and of course all of our fingers will be pink and purple and green for days.

My daughter spotted the egg-dying kit peeking out of my shopping bag and said, “Mommy, why do we always have an egg hunt?” And I looked at her and said, “You know… I have no idea.”

She had me stumped. I had no clue why every spring we buy more eggs than we normally consume in a month and boil them and dye them and hide them in the yard, where we inevitably fail to retrieve at least one, and a four-legged critter ends up finding it for us. What does any of this have to do with the celebration of Easter or Spring?

She had me curious, so I looked it up. (Feel free to chime in if you know a different explanation, but this is from Wikipedia, so I’m sure it’s absolutely 100 percent accurate.)

Turns out, the Easter egg has to do with the Christian tradition of Lent in Eastern Europe, when people would traditionally avoid eating meat or dairy. Eggs, evidently, fell into the “dairy” category because they are a product that can be taken from an animal without shedding its blood. Quite a scientific explanation, isn’t it? Anyway, at the end of Lent, people would have stockpiled all these eggs, which they boiled, so they would keep longer and not go to waste. When Easter came around it was time to use up the eggs as part of the holiday celebrations. It became a common practice to decorate the eggs and hide them for children to find.

The Easter egg tradition is especially prevalent in Eastern Europe, where they take egg-decorating very seriously. The famous jewelry firm, Faberge, of St. Petersburg, is known for its jewel-encrusted eggs. The original Faberge egg was created for Tsar Alexander III of Russia to give to his wife in 1885.

Aside from all the religious traditions associated with it, the simple egg has long been a symbol and spring and rebirth.

Around our house, we don’t focus on the symbolism so much as the fun that goes along with dying eggs. One of our favorite techniques is to dip some of the eggs in oil before dying them, which gives them a pretty watercolor effect. The kids also like to draw pictures in crayon, or sometimes even paint the eggs. My mother used to take egg decorating to the extreme, creating these beautiful pastel-colored sugar eggs, with elaborate dioramas inside them made of icing and silk flowers. They were amazing to look at, but I’ve never attempted them myself. The Martha Stewart gene must have skipped me.

What are your favorite holiday traditions this time of year?

Anyone who leaves a comment today will be eligible to win a $15 Starbucks card and a copy of my latest release, UNSTOPPABLE.

Featured on murder she writes

Bio:

Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.